Once again Ibrox Noise has been receiving the fake news story about Rangers captain James Tavernier and a fictional move to Leeds.

This one began life as a fabricated screen grab of transfer guru Fabrizio Romano’s well-respected and well-trusted Twitter account, a screen grab which purported to show, in the Italian’s unique style, that Leeds had agreed a deal for £5M to sign Ibrox right-back Tavernier.

Of course, Leeds are one of his former clubs, albeit at youth level only, him being a Leeds boy by birth, so it’s understandable that such a fictional story might seem real, given it dots some i’s and scores some t’s.

But no, whether you love or hate Tavernier, there is no Leeds bid agreed with Rangers for him, and unfortunately the story just keeps growing legs thanks to digital fakery.

The problem for sites like Ibrox Noise is the number of fans duped by this nonsense. As you will all know, we bring you the stories we get, the sources we have which supply them, and not all of them will bear fruit.

The official media partners bring you next-to-nothing aside getting an announcement advance around 24 hours before the club actually brings it, because Rangers keep this stuff very quiet.

But Rangers aren’t the only ones involved in the club’s transfer deals – the club they’re buying from, selling to, and a tonne of agents and associates mean that keeping these stories under wraps isn’t possible. From the club’s side, yes, but from others? Not so much.

Meaning we do get info, and while most of it is accurate at the time, it doesn’t mean it’ll bear actual fruit.

If we tell you the club is scouting 10 players, it’s because the club is probably scouting 10 players. It doesn’t mean all 10 will join Rangers, and when they don’t, sources like Ibrox Noise get called fake news. Just part of the territory.

But fictional images and stories like this one help no one – it’s just complete nonsense and it means ‘fake news’ is spreading around because it’s being credited to a serious source like Romano.

So no, Tavernier isn’t joining Leeds, at least, not on the basis of that screen grab.

Let’s not go!